Important: meeting point for all trips (Geological trips & Corum trips)
Enter Le Corum, go down to level 0. There you will see the bus parked just behind big windows (Berlioz gate). The meeting point is right there, next to the bus. Le Corum people can also help you if you need directions. Be there at least 10 minutes before the time indicated in the trips description.
Do not forget! The ESC2010 group photo will be taken on
Thursday 9 at 16h30, on the Corum plaza at the top of the steps.
All registered participants to the ESC2010 can sign up for the Social Programme activities, including the Young Seismologists Training Course participants and the Exhibitors.
Update: Laboratory Geosciences Montpellier visit!
Geosciences Montpellier offers you to visit its laboratories through a brief guided tour on
Thursday, September 9. We will leave the Corum at 10h30 and return at 13h00.
Geosciences Montpellier gathers Earth scientists and their analytical and observational means in a single laboratory located on the main campus of Montpellier 2 University. They are mainly dealing with geodynamics from the crystal to the plates. You should be able to visit the analogical lab (with experiments at the scale of an orogen), the petrophysical lab (Crystal Probe, Paterson) and the isotopes lab (laser-ICPMS ...).
You can register for the visit directly at the EMSC booth (n°1).
Geosciences Montpellier can only accommodate a small group so only about 20 people (max) may register. First come, first served!
The EMSC booth will also serve as a gathering point at 10h30 for the departure to Geosciences Montpellier. Be one time!
An
icebreaker party is scheduled on September, 5th, 2010 (Sunday) from 17:30 to 19:30 at the Corum.
The
Gala Dinner (30€ VAT incl.) will take place on September, 9th 2010 (Thursday). The regular dinner will be
stricly without pork.
A vegetarian dinner will also be proposed (choice must be made on the Registration Form. If you do not choose an option, you will be given a regular dinner).
Important: You can come to the Gala Dinner with a guest, even if he/she is not registered to the ESC2010. However, you will have to order and pay 2 Gala Dinner on your order form (only one guest for each registered participant). If your guest only comes to the Gala Dinner, do not register him/her as an Accompanying Person (Accompanying Persons will also have access to the Icebreaker, Soirées Terroir and Social Programme - with additional fees).
We will also propose a special feature to all ESC2010 participants: the
Soirées Terroirs (local wine and food tasting), on September 6-8, 2010 in the Posters Room in the Corum. Each Soirée will highlight a kind of food, and our objective is to make you discover the variety of Montpellier region local products. Each tasting will last for about 1h30, after a hard day's work (beginning around 16:30).
Here's the programme:
Monday 6th - South of France delicacies (typical southern French food)
Tuesday 7th - Wine and Cheese
Wednesday 8th - "Bassin the Thau": seafood (oysters, mussels etc.) and fish
Now on with the
Touristic visits and the Geological Tours, another part of our Social Programme!
All these activities are subjected to a minimum number of registered participants (30 for the touristic visits, 25 for the geological tours), and might be cancelled is this number is not reached. Prices are including VAT (19,6%)
The touristic visits are handled and organized by Le Corum, while the Geological tours are organized by
Geosciences Montpellier.
1 - Touristic visits organized by Le Corum
September 6th, 2010 (Monday): Montpellier by night
7/9pm 25€
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Bright in the day, the city really lights up at night!
Since 2007, Montpellier has adorned its historical monuments in a halo of blue.
From the Place de la
Comédie to the Arceaux aqueduct, discover the city in a new light. Montpellier nights won’t keep any secrets from you!
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September 7th, 2010 (Tuesday): Visit of Carcassonne
Full day, lunch included 90€ |
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Departure from Montpellier’s Corum at 9.00 a.m towards the most beautiful and the most powerful City fortress of the Middle Ages in Europe. Carcassonne, surrounded with high and proud walls of the Roman period, spectacular towers and huge defensive doors.
>All the science of the military art of defense.
>One of the most visited monuments in France and carefully restored by Violet le Duc.
>The Basilica St Nazaire, the jewel of the city in its high wall case.
>Old cathedral and true museum, with its stained glasses worthy of the Holy Vault, its documents of history: Pieta, stone of the seat...
>The Comtal Castle, the work of valorous Trencavel and Medieval very animated lanes.
Lunch and continuation of the guided tour and spare time. Return to Montpellier at the end of the afternoon.
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September 8th, 2010 (Wednesday): Visit of Sète "the Languedocian Venice"
Half-day tour (Morning + Lunch) |
TRIP CANCELLED, minimum number of participants not reached
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Departure from Montpellier’s Corum at 8.30 a.m in direction of Sète.
>Homage To Georges BRASSENS.
>The unforgettable panorama of the "White Stones" on the basin of Thau, the Lido, and in the background, the volcanos of Agde and the Pyrenees mountains.
>The "Mount Saint Clair" at the top of which you will admire a splendid sight from the Causses in the Camargue.
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Picture courtesy of Le Corum |
>The marine cemetery where the stone tombs dominating the port, plunge towards "this quiet roof" of the sea, place of rest of Paul VALERY.
>The harbour and its many trawlers.
>The Venice Languedocian, her channels and her bridges.
Departure in direction of Frontignan and visit of the cooperative cellar producing the very famous Muscatel called Nectar of Hercules. Tasting.
Lunch at Balaruc-les-bains, the third thermal spa of France, at the edge of the basin of Thau which stretches along the Languedocien coast. Departure for Montpellier after lunch. Return to Montpellier.
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September 9th, 2010 (Thursday): Visit of Saint-Guilhem Le Désert
Half-day tour (Morning + Lunch) |
TRIP CANCELLED, minimum number of participants not reached
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| Departure from Montpellier’s Corum at 8.30. |
After the vine grower villages of Gignac and Aniane, the Bridge of the Devil, one of the oldest Roman structure left, in a sublime landscape, you will admire the resurge of the gullies of the Herault river.
Arrival to St-Guilhem-the-Desert.
This very picturesque village located at the entry of wild gullies, is built around an old Abbey.
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>Guided tour of the church Abbey the oldest parts belonging to the 8th century.
>Walk through the lanes and discovery of the village.
Departure towards Aniane for lunch then return towards Montpellier. |
2 - Geological Tours organized by the Laboratoire Geosciences Montpellier
We will also propose you geological tours organized by
Geosciences Montpellier.
Our trips are scheduled for 30 participants (maximum - first come, first served basis) guided by 2-3 geologists from Montpellier. Departure around 8h30 from Montpellier’s Corum, return in the evening.
Pictures courtesy of the Laboratoire de Géosciences de Montpellier.
Here are a few words from the field trips organizers:
We will leave at 8h30. Please be there at least 10 minutes before as we can’t wait for late-comers. So don't be late!
The meeting point for geological trips is the same as the one for touristic trips: enter Le Corum, go down to level 0. There you will see the bus parked just behind big windows. The meeting point is right there, next to the bus. Le Corum people can also help you if you need directions.
To enjoy your trip and have a safe walk, you will need:
- good walking shoes (covering your ankles) with good soles as in some parts the soil may be uneven (no need real hiking shoes, though)
- a hat or a cap
- sunglasses
- a small individual bottle of water
If you usually use a walking stick, do not hesitate to take one with you (the path is not difficult but may be stony in some parts)
A field trip guide will be handed over to you in the bus with 3D glasses.
September 5th, 2010 (Sunday):
The Pyrenean belt in the Languedoc and the opening of the "Golfe du Lion".
30€ lunchbox included. Full-day tour, return on time (17h30) to attend the Icebreaker.
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Le Pic St Loup
This spectacular mountain marks the northernmost front of the Pyrenean tectonics in Languedoc.
The faulted and folded massive Jurassic limestones overthrust Tertiary continental and lacustrine syntectonic deposits of the Saint Martin de Londres basin.
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The Pic Saint Loup
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La Faille des Cevennes
This major SW-NE oriented fault zone is well expressed in the morphology, making the main topographic step that bounds the "grands Causses" plateau. Its complex tectonic history begins at the end of the Paleozoic. During the Tertiary, left lateral strike slip displacements accomodate the compressional Pyrenean tectonics. Then, opening of the Golfe du Lion rejuvenate the Faille des Cevennes as normal fault. This extensional tectonics is responsible for the SW-NE oriented grabens that controls elongated Oligocene-Miocene continental basins.
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September 11th, 2010 (Saturday): Building of the Hercynian Chain and Late-Paleozoic extension, Montagne Noire and Bassin de Lodeve.
30€ lunchbox included. Full-day tour, return around 19h00. |
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The Salagou Neck
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The Montagne Noire is the southernmost part of the Hercynian belt in the French Massif Central.
Here, the high grade metamorphic rocks that compose the deep roots of the belt can be observed in the Gorges d'Heric scenic area, as much as the well known recumbent fold-nappes that developed in the Paleozoic sedimentary sequences of the southern slope units.
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At the end of the Variscan orogeny, a widespread extension thinned the European continental crust forming spectacular basins filled with continental sediments deposited in a semi-arid climatic environment.
Fossil prints of Permian pre-mammalian reptilians are well preserved and can be observed in the muddy sediments of the basin. The Tertiary volcanic activity of the "chainon de l'Esclandorgue" marks the recent tectonic and morphologic evolution of the "Bassin de Lodeve" region.
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